In Friday’s Atlantic 10 match between the Temple Owls (11-6,4-0) and the St. Louis Billikens (1-15,0-4), sophomore forwards Amber Youtz and Nicole Kroener continued to score points on an A-10 opponent, en route of their team’s fourth consecutive A-10 win.
“Once the A-10 season came around, I knew that was the time that I really had to turn it on because that’s when it really matters” Youtz said.
Through the course of the season, Youtz has led the Owls in goals, assists, and total points scored. During the team’s four game winning streak in conference the sophomore forward has continued her strong play with six goals and three assists.
“It makes us a lot more confident to go into the rest of the A-10 and for the A-10 tournament. It’s something we were striving for this year to come out, and take each game, game by game, and keep winning.”
Now with 20 goals this season, Youtz moves to eighth all-time in goals scored in a season, for Temple, tying her former teammate Bridget Settles.
“It says a lot about my team, setting me up. I can’t take all the credit for that by any means. We just have a great team that is helping me excel,” Yout said.
Youtz also moved up to sixth all-time in total points scored in a season, with 50.
“She works really hard. She puts in a lot of effort, off the field and off season, and it’s all paying off and showing now” said Owls’ head coach, Amanda Janney.
Second in total points is fellow sophomore forward Nicole Kroener, who during the Temple win streak, has tallied a goal and four assists. Two of those assists went to Youtz, including last week’s game winner against Lock Haven.
“Amber is a great player. Has good vision to see when she should go and when she needs to pass it,” Kroener said. “She sees me on the guard a lot, which is awesome. I try to look for her up top because she makes great cuts.”
“We’ve played together a lot and it just kept coming the more we practiced. I think we just set each other up well and complement each other, which helps,” Youtz said.
In the 5-1 victory against St. Louis, Youtz and Kroener either scored or assisted on all five goals. During the four game streak, within the conference, the sophomore duo has scored or assisted on all but one goal.
“I think it has a lot to do with who we play in our out of conference matches,” Kroener said. “Teams that are mostly in the top 25. I think that definitely helps us play at a higher level.”
“We look at the non-conference as part of our off season, to keep practicing, and this is when the real games begin,” Youtz said.
-Brien Edwards
Brien Edwards can be reached at brien.edwards@temple.edu or on Twitter @BErick1123.
Be the first to comment